168 diocesan weeklies in Italy, for a total of one million copies. The members of the Italian Federation of Catholic Weeklies (Fisc), they met in Rome from 22nd to 24th November for the XV National Election Meeting and chose as a their slogan: "Diocesan papers, witnesses of hope". Yesterday, mgr. Giuseppe Betori, secretary general of the Italian Bishops Conference, spoke at the meeting and said: "Diocesan weeklies are a special means to imbue the Christian view of life in the population". This was echoed by the president of Fisc, father Giorgio Zucchelli, who, in recalling the "proposal submitted to the Ecclesial meeting of Verona: a weekly in every diocese", said: "Over the last few years, we have worked towards this goal". A quantitative and qualitative survey was presented this morning by the Observatory on Communication about the way three Italian newspapers Corriere della Sera, La Repubblica and Avvenire spoke of the Family Day, the event in which thousands of Italian families rallied in the streets last May. Also on the occasion of the National Meeting, the Fisc-SIR press award, dedicated to Giovanni Fallani, who directed SIR from January 1989 to April 1997, was given to Barbara Sartori for her piece: "Dio, se esisti, dove sei?" (God, if You do exist, where are you?).
